(Blog) Welcome to the Battlefield 4 Beta

After two years of hard work we are finally getting ready to roll out Battlefield 4! Please join us next week in the Battlefield 4 Beta to help us make the launch a smoother experience. In this personal blog post, DICE General Manager Karl Magnus Troedsson explains this exciting milestone for Battlefield in detail and how you can help us make the game better.

This is a very exciting time for me and everyone at DICE. After years of hard work and passion, we are in the final stages of preparing for our biggest game yet. This beta marks one of the final milestones before Battlefield 4 launches October 29, and I couldn’t be more proud of what the team has accomplished.

__________________________________________________

Take part in the Siege of Shanghai

In this beta, you’ll be able to play the Siege of Shanghai map – perhaps our most ambitious and “Battlefield-y” map ever. Never before have we combined a dense urban environment with full infantry and vehicular combat. You’ll zigzag between the skyscrapers in helicopters or engage enemies right in the center of the city in our all-new attack boats. We’re also including the entire concept of Levolution [blogs.battlefield.com], from the epic player-triggered moment where you can bring down an entire skyscraper, to all of the little things like raising bollards to stop advancing armor, car alarms going off, and being able to lower shutter gates to fortify your position.

In many ways, this map perfectly encapsulates the ideas we have for Battlefield 4 overall – the notion of all-out vehicle warfare with an increased focus on water-based combat and the game-changing concept of Levolution. We can’t wait for you to experience it, both in the Conquest and Domination game mode.

As a small token of appreciation, all players who take part in the Beta will be awarded a unique dog tag for use in Battlefield 4 (when the full game is out).

__________________________________________________

Help us make the game betterWhile the release of Battlefield 4 is relatively close, I wanted to underline that this is, in every respect, a true Beta test. We still have time to implement changes based on your feedback. Some of these changes will happen in time for launch; some feedback will be addressed after launch in our extensive ongoing support of the game.

As long-term fans will know, we are also passionate about tweaking and balancing gameplay based on player feedback once the game is live – expect our commitment for Battlefield 4 to be equally strong. We take pride in listening to our fans so do make yourself heard.

If you have any feedback on the Beta, please submit it to us in the Battlefield 4 Beta forums that we will set up on Battlelog. We will provide regular updates on the beta itself in Battlelog News posts, in the Battlelog forums, and in news posts inside the game (on console).

While we are eager to hear your feedback on the actual gameplay, the beta is first and foremost an opportunity for us to test the underlying infrastructure – server loads, matchmaking systems, server browsers, and game mode rotations are now going to be tested at high capacity for the first time in a public environment. The data that we will receive during the beta period will be of great value to us when configuring the game for launch. Simply by joining the beta, you are helping us tweak very important details in the multiplayer components for our biggest and most ambitious game yet.

__________________________________________________

What to expect from the Beta

During the beta, we are aiming to be live 24/7. However, we will regularly restart servers on short notice or take down the beta for periods of time if needed for technical reasons. This is because we are still optimizing net code, updating the dedicated server code, updating the server infrastructure, and doing database work.

You can always check the notice bar on Battlelog for up to date information on server status for all platforms (PC, X360, PS3).

I would also like to point out that gameplay is still being balanced, and that the beta is not representative of the final quality of the game. The beta version of the game is actually older than the version we are currently working on at the DICE office, since the beta had to be submitted for testing and certification before it can go live.

__________________________________________________

How to join the Battlefield 4 Beta

I am happy to invite all of our fans to try the open beta. There is also an exclusive beta three days prior that is open for a select group of players including Battlefield 3 Premium members [battlefield.com] and fans who have pre-ordered the Battlefield 4 Digital Deluxe Edition on Origin [battlefield.com]. See below how and when you can join. The most up to date information on how to find and download the Beta for all platforms will be published on this Beta page. [battlefield.com]

Note that you are required to run a 64-bit OS to join the Battlefield 4 Beta on PC. As a studio, we wanted to focus our efforts on testing the 64-bit version of the game. The full version of the game will also run on 32-bit Windows OS.

__________________________________________________

Keeping the Battlefield fair

At DICE, we are always striving to keep the Battlefield fair. We are happy to let you know that we have increased our protection against cheaters to not only use PunkBuster, but we will also work side by side with Gameblocks, who will provide us with their anti-cheat engine FairFight. We believe that the FairFight engine will be a great complement to the anti-cheat measures already in play. During the Beta we will try out both FairFight and PunkBuster to make the experience as good as possible for our players. You will notice information about the two anti-cheat measures on the server browser pages on Battlelog, and you will also potentially see messaging in the chat box in-game when a cheater is caught. We will get back to you later with more detail on how we are improving our anti-cheat measures in Battlefield 4.

__________________________________________________

To our fans: We salute you

Finally, I wanted to take the time to personally thank our millions of fans for making Battlefield what it is today. With Battlefield 4, we are making great new strides in the series and I am happy to have you along for the ride. Please let us know if you have any questions on the beta below and we’ll do our best to answer them. Now, all I have to do is to complete my three outstanding Assignments in Battlefield 3 before we launch Battlefield 4!